Wild ass: a way of life, photo

The donkey is a mammal, an oddby-ungulate.

In many countries, and now close to people lives ass, or a domestic donkey. An animal wild donkey participated in the formation of this economic subspecies.

Domestic donkeys, it is proved, appeared earlier than domesticated horses and for a long time were practically the main vehicle.

Donkey: characteristic, origin

As with many other animals, such as horses, one should distinguish between wild and wild asses. The wild donkey has its own characteristics. But we'll talk about them later.

Donkeys can occur in a variety of colors: gray, black, brown, occasionally white. The color of the abdomen, anterior part of the muzzle and the area around the eyes are usually light. The mane and tail are rigid. At the end of the tail - a brush. The ears are clearly longer than the horses.

The height of the donkeys varies between 90-160 cm. Sexual maturity is reached by about 2.5 years.

Due to the fact that their hooves are not well tolerated by the European wet climate (deep holes and cracks in which ulcers appear), care of them is extremely important.

These animals originate from countries with arid climatic conditions.

Wild ass: name, description, habitats

The wild donkey (Equus asinus) in the long past was most likely widespread in the North African deserts. As a species, it, unfortunately, is practically not studied.

The ancestor of a domestic donkey (North Africa) has the appearance of a typical long-eared animal, much smaller than a horse (height up to 1.4 m), thin-legged, with a massive head and short mane.

Long ago, various subspecies of this ungulates lived in North Africa and parts of Asia. As a result of domestication, they almost all disappeared in the Roman era.

For today, they have survived only on the hills off the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea. A small population could take root in the Israeli reserve.

In Somalia, as a result of the civil war, the wild donkey may have completely disappeared. In Ethiopia and Sudan, it is likely that the same fate awaits him. Only Eritrea has a good number of these animals - about 400 individuals.

The wild donkeys: spreading

Feral (once former domesticated) donkeys, in comparison with the originally wild, exist in many countries of the world. There are also in countries with populations of wild donkeys, which causes serious concerns of zoologists. They believe that such a situation can lead to mixing of both groups, and this will lead to the destruction of the genetic purity of the wild ass.

Quite a lot of wild animals live in the steppes of Australia (1.5 million). In the south-west of the United States - about 6 thousand donkeys (burros), which are protected.

One of the few European populations of such donkeys is also found on Fr. Caprice. They are larger than other donkeys. Their singularity is also in the fact that zebra-shaped bands are observed on the legs.

Perhaps, the wild donkey is not at all primordially wild. Most of the animals that people see in nature in recent years are practically wild animals. A wild donkey has been little studied. All that is known about him: he lives mostly in the desert and semi-desert. Eats mostly vegetation.

Lifestyle

Like zebras, donkeys are kept by family herds (10 mares and young) under the leadership of a stallion. Widely roam and very careful. In nature, there can be both smooth-haired, and long-haired and curly-haired.

They mate in the main in the spring, less often in early summer. After about 1 year (13-14 months), one or two colt are born, which are fed by mother's milk until the age of 6 months.

The donkey is very attached to its young. The autonomy of the foal reaches almost two years.

Difference from a horse, features

What is the difference between a donkey and a horse? The fact that he has hoofs, adapted to walking on an uneven rocky surface. But they allow these animals only to move safely, but do not skip. True, if necessary, the donkey is able to develop a speed of up to 70 kilometers per hour.

In addition to notable external differences from horses, there are some features that are not noticeable at first glance. One of them is a different number of vertebrae. There are also 31 pairs of chromosomes in donkeys, whereas horses have 32 chromosomes.

And the body temperature in these animals compared with horses is slightly lower - an average of 37, not 38 ° C. The period of pregnancy in donkeys is longer than that of horses.

A wild donkey (photo with a baby - above) is a caring, hardy, hardworking animal.

Even with the construction of the famous Egyptian pyramids, these amazing, seemingly small animals participated as riding and pack. It turns out that the domestication of the ass actually took place in Egypt and Ethiopia during the period of the Upper Neolithic, more than 5 thousand years ago.